Other than a few interesting years in the mid-2000s, Apple’s approach to the enterprise market has been one of benign neglect. The one exception, starting in 2005, has been consistent support for running Windows on Macs. By now, the practice is well-established. But the issue of management still looms large. How can IT deploy Macs that run Windows without multiplying the complexity (and cost) of deployment, maintenance and security by at least a factor of two?

Cost-wise based on my experience so far, I will have this machine for at least 8 years, based on my previous PC experience I would have purchased 6 Windows based machines. One Mac is a lot less expensive than 5 or 6 Windows based PCs.

The enterprise question that vendors are now addressing in a variety of interesting ways is, “How can we make Macs running Windows securely maintainable components of the IT infrastructure and ecosystem?” [ Related: ] Windows on Mac works, and can work well. The most relevant question for enterprises is which Windows-on-Mac virtualization options offer: • The best overall integration • The lowest TCO, including maintenance and security • Good usability • End-user satisfaction How we tested running Windows on a Mac Apple test beds in our lab include a variety of Mac desktops and laptops (and even a few Xserve servers), but most cross-product benchmark testing for this review was done using fully upgraded 2012 Mac Pro towers as a reference platform.

Though getting a little long in the tooth, they are quite fast, rock-solid and standards-compliant, and unlike more recent Macs, the hardware can be swapped, modified and expanded as needed (CPUs, RAM, storage, standard PCIe graphics and expansion cards, etc.). The primary Windows drives on the test platforms are on mSATA or M.2 SSDs run from a PCIe expansion card to maximize throughput and performance, but we also run baseline tests with virtual machines stored on standard 5,400rpm rotating drives to make sure performance is still acceptable with low-end hardware.

I tested five Windows-on-Mac options in our lab — currently shipping versions of Apple’s Boot Camp, CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac, Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop. They vary in cost, complexity and feature sets, and my perceptions of their pros and cons might help you decide which will be best for your circumstances.

Under Choose commands from, select All Commands from the drop-down list, scroll down and select Switch Windows, then click the Add>> button to move that command to the right-hand window. In the Excel Options dialog box (shown below) the Quick Access Toolbar should be selected in the left pane. Excel for mac switch between worksheets. You can move it up or down according to where you would like it placed on the QAT toolbar.

I will follow up in coming weeks with a deeper look at VMware Fusion’s upcoming version 10 and Parallels’ recently released Desktop 13. [ To comment on this story, visit. ] Performance isn’t the issue Using a basket of benchmarks covering CPU, graphics and sample workflow measurements, performance was simply not a key differentiator in these tests. All of the products we tested are mature and stable, and aside from the natural differences between Boot Camp and the rest (native hardware support vs. Virtualization or emulation — discussed further below), the average performance difference between products in most circumstances was 10% or less.